House of Hallways

First topic message reminder :

Varda was quite exhausted! The trip through the odd house had been very taxing already, but when he had to make a quick trip back to the little town with a Glaceon on his back... Well, it certainly had been something, alright! Luckily he didn't have to carry his friend back, as they had been lucky and there was a Pokémon who could deal with their injuries for a small compensation, so they could just rush to the spooky weird house as soon as their legs – and wings – allowed them to! They had lost some valuable time doing this, but the bird believed he had done the right decision on his own, without Sova's help...

The house felt strange this time. They had been through such strange rooms on their first visit, but now the door they took sent them to an odd, extremely long hallway. It was rather narrow compared to many rooms they had seen before, but the hallway was wide enough to let a couple of Pokémon to walk side by side. There were no doors the bird could see, there hadn't been any doors for a while since the last one they took. As usual, there were various candles on the walls lighting up the gloomy house, some dark spots left behind by the dim lighting. The floorboards creaked under the pair of Pokémon and the old wallpaper was ripped in many places, revealing old wooden panels.


Current Energy: 38 (57 -19 from entering)

"Heh," sova laughed quietly as Varda insisted that this situation classified as a fight. Technically, the altaria was wrong, as a fight, by definition, was always violent. But oh, how to explain this.... how to word it? He thought for a moment before cutting the froslass off from speaking. "A fight, by definition, means something physical, violent. I didn't hurt her at all. When she bleeds, then you can call it a fight," he responded, both to what Varda had directed at him and the question that'd been given to the froslass, stating she wasn't hurt while he was at it.
He hadn't hurt the thing, after all.... even though he wanted to.

Upon realizing her neck-rubbing was giving off the impression that she was hurt, Nevi immediately stopped, dropping her arm down to her side. "Oh-" she began, only to have the glaceon cut her off and speak on behalf of both of them.
"....Like he said, I'm fine," she responded after waiting patiently for the rude fox to shut up.
She then continued forward, not wanting to hold up the group.... or, well, the altaria. She didn't really care if she held up the other one at this point, and by the fact that he was just continuing forward, it seemed he wasn't being held up regardless of the situation.

As the group walked, the passageway began to.... distort, with the sense of gravity in the area slowly changing as they went forward, almost giving off the sensation that the floor was.... curving, even though it was clearly straight. It would soon begin to feel like they were walking on a wall rather than the floor, then the ceiling. Being at the front of the group as well as being attuned to his surroundings, Sova almost immediately realized this.... Okay, so being here multiple times before helped too, since he had been expecting this to happen. Things involving what could only be described as faulty gravity seemed to happen a lot in this particular area of the house. However, this wasn't quite the same as what he'd experienced before. Rather than gravity itself changing, it was the perception of gravity that was changing.

(Don't worry, it's a suppository.)

Varda looked back at Sova as his friend started to explain the definition of a fight – and apparently that contradicted what the bird had said. He blinked a couple of times, as if it took his brain a while to actually understand what was being said. In his eyes, the Glaceon was a very smart Pokémon, so of course he trusted that his friend knew what he was talking about. He didn't even want to question that. But bleeding... Was bleeding the only thing that signified someone was hurt? Even if one only spoke of physical pain, was that really it?

Nevi spoke up, saying that she indeed was fine. And as far as the Altaria could see, she wasn't bleeding. Was there some truth to it after all? For a moment the bird had to be quiet as he munched on a seed, feeling rather exhausted after all this. But then, he spoke up.
"But... Let's say that there's a fight – a real fight – and someone is punching you," he started chirping, quite oblivious to what was happening around them as he walked along with long steps, no longer as slow as he had been when his legs had been stubbier,
"It would hurt, right? But you might not bleed. And... You might even break a bone! You couldn't even see that, but it would hurt!"


((But the doctor told me to stop putting things in my butt after the last time.))

Sova had prepared for yet another simple-minded response from his friend, as was what he'd gotten accustomed to, but to his surprise, Varda actually said something.... well, something that implied the bird understood concepts such as violence. Actually, it seemed Varda had a rather respectable understanding of injuries, enough to reasonably argue against blood always being present in a fight. But this didn't mean he was just going to give his friend the win, despite the respectable counterargument. "Touche. But.... you know me, you know how I am. If a fight's personal," he paused as he looked back at the altaria, giving the froslass a quick glance as well.

"Do you really think I'd let her go without making her bleed?," he continued, then redirected his gaze back in front of him.
The room's gravity seemingly warping was becoming quite evident to him, to the point that he was expecting to start feeling pulled toward one of the walls at any moment. However, this feeling never came.... though it definitely felt like the room was changing. It just seemed like.... gravity was keeping him stuck to the floor.

Nevi fell silent as the conversation shifted to something she wasn't really interested in taking part in. When the glaceon looked back at her and seemed to subtly threaten her more, she shot him a glare, but didn't get any kind of reaction. He'd seen, for sure, but just ignored it. Either way, she wasn't worried about the threats, as she knew how to take care of herself. She wasn't as much of a pushover as this glaceon seemed to think. She hadn't begun to notice the apparent shift in gravity yet, though that was partly due to her floating and partly due to her being use to this house and its shenanigans.

(It's okay if it's the doctor putting things in your butt.)

Varda tilted his head as his friend seemed to accept his point, but brought up how he wouldn't let someone go, um, unbloodied if there was a fight. He actually didn't know the answer to that, even though it almost seemed like Sova expected him to know it? If there was a fight, then yes, blood could be drawn. There wasn't much one could do about that if the situation had taken a turn for the worse. But what would Sova do? The bird thought about it long and hard.

"Maybe!" He arrived at a conclusion, one the Glaceon seemed to not go towards. But like Sova said, the Altaria knew him and this is the answer he felt was true!
"What if you were planning to use the same explanation so I wouldn't get angry? You couldn't if you caused a Pokémon to bleed, as then you would be defeated by your own words! But if you instead made sure there was no blood, that would be the only way that allowed you to get away with it," Varda nodded a couple of times, feeling like some kind of really cool detective or something!

The seed was good and had filled his belly, but now that he thought about it, he looked at Nevi by his side, a big smile on his face. She had been awfully quiet, so perhaps she was still a bit frightened. Last time she had opened her mouth, Sova had attacked.
"Are you hungry, miss?"


((Oh, okay.))

[i]Current Energy: 57 (+57 from the Reviver Seed)

Bird carried out 5 launched of one Ruined Passageway :

, , , ,

Nevi listened to the other two discuss a rather dark topic in violence and injuries, which bothered her a bit, but she didn't say anything about it. Mostly, it bothered her that the friendly altaria seemed so.... willing to talk about that. Like, he was so nice, how could someone so nice be so interested in that kind of conversation topic? She was relieved to see the glaceon didn't seem particularly interested in continuing it for a moment, and the situation continued to brighten up as she was offered food. "Oh, sure!," she happily accepted, but her appetite quickly disappeared.

Sova fell silent for a moment as he contemplated his friend's ramblings. He had to admit, he was having trouble keeping himself in the game, so to speak, but he yet again managed to think of a way to respond. "Fine, you make a good point. So I guess I'll just have to follow your advice and break her bones instead," he responded so nonchalantly any normal 'mon would probably find it rather disturbing.
Bone-breaking really didn't seem like too bad of an idea, though.... but he wasn't exactly sure what parts of a froslass' body did and didn't have bones. Either way, he was certain there were things somewhere within the body of a froslass that would snap given enough pressure, and he considered himself quite the expert at applying that kind of pressure.

"....N-never mind, I'm suddenly not very hungry," Nevi then spoke up again, the talk of her bones being broken having FOR SOME ODD REASON taken away her appetite.
She wasn't intimidated, just.... a bit disturbed. Even most of the residents of the chateau weren't that creepy.

(Yay another 1 energy.)

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

Varda nodded at Nevi with a happy smile as she agreed that she too was hungry. He didn't know what she had been doing before this, but he had been doing a lot of walking and running with Sova! At least he had been hungry, as exploring was a lot of hard work! And even though the trio hadn't been doing much of it together, he could understand if Nevi was starting to feel a bit peckish herself. It would be fun to share a snack together...

But as he reached into his bag to see what kind of food he might have with him that the ghost-like Pokémon would have enjoyed, Sova spoke up and was up to no good again! The food was momentarily forgotten as the Altaria looked at the Glaceon, his face stern enough.
"Sovaa!" He called out, wanting his friend's attention as he fluffed up his feathers a little,
"You can't go breaking the bones of others! I said no fighting, so you shouldn't be fighting!" Varda continued to chirp, spreading his wings a little as he explained.


((I messed up the code too but at least it wasn't the dice roll. :<))

Sova continued moving as he listened, ignoring the slowly rising disorientation that was showing up the further into this hallway the group went.  Varda's logic seemed to be falling back to its normal state of "You shouldn't do this because it's bad," which he knew meant he could no longer attempt to reason with the bird.  Granted, he hadn't really been trying to reason in the first place, so that was fine.  He could still mess around.  "Aw, but your idea was such a good one, it'd be a shame for me not to use it.  No, more than that; it'd be an insult to you personally," he responded, knowing all too well that what he was saying was not what the altaria had meant.

Honestly, though, he still preferred making the froslass bleed over breaking any bones, because if he hit hard enough, he could cause scars, maybe permanently.  He doubted he could find moral justification for killing the froslass, but permanently scarring it.... that, he could do.  Breaking bones would potentially cause much worse permanent damage, but that didn't matter to him.  If he was going to leave the froslass with something permanent to remember him by, he wanted it to be a constant reminder to everyone it would ever see that once upon a time, someone stomped the creature in a fight.  Of course, this was under the assumption he would indeed be able to "stomp" the froslass, but he highly doubted it would be a match for him.

Nevi fell silent once more as she followed along, feeling a bit alienated by the current topic.  She was being talked about as if she wasn't there, and at that, it was quite a hostile topic about her.  The others were discussing hurting her!  She would have left, if not for the fact that not both of them were expressing a desire to hurt her.  Rather, Varda was very evidently against that, which made her want to stick around.  Besides, it wasn't like she'd really get better treatment from anyone else in this house, so.... she was willing to take what she could get.

(That's okay, I forgive you.  Oh, and enjoy your rocks.)

"Noo!" Varda objected with a high-pitched chirp, not even understanding that he was being messed with. As usual, he took everything seriously and literally, worried that Sova actually was planning to do something like that. Perhaps he was now worrying that he gave the Pokémon such a good idea, if the Glaceon really saw it as one. But it wouldn't work anymore! It wouldn't, because he knew what Sova was up to so the whole excuse would fall flat! And he would be... Really, really angry!
"You can't do that, Sova!" The bird fluffed up his feathers as he flapped his wings, not going to budge when it came to this matter.

Though, as he let his eyes wander, something managed to catch his interest. A part of the wall seemed to have crumbled away, this section seemingly made out of some kind of stone bricks or something... Or was the whole house made out of them, and just covered with other materials like wallpaper? It was a mystery, one that didn't bother the Altaria for very long. There was no hole in the wall, but there was a small pile of rocks on the floor – and Varda couldn't help but hop over to them to take a look! Some of the rocks looked so nice and smooth, and the bird Pokémon couldn't help but move them around with his beak, cooing in a rather excited manner.


((Varda, the lover of sticks and rocks.))


Current Energy: 36 (57 -4 from the item rolls, -17 from the enemy roll)

While he would have liked to say he was surprised by the bird's reaction, Sova'd known it was going to be something like that.  The thing about that logic of Varda's, though, was that he indeed COULD do that, if he so pleased to.  It wasn't like Varda could really stop him, considering the massive typing advantage he held, not to mention the fact that he was a warrior while Varda was more of a diplomat.  But of course, he wasn't going to attack his friend, nor was he going to attack the froslass.... well, he wouldn't attack the froslass without a decent reason, at least.  Okay, it was really just an excuse he wanted, not a "reason" per se, but still.

"I can, I just won't.  At least, assuming she doesn't give me an excuse," he responded, only looking back momentarily before continuing walking....
Then he stopped and looked back again as he realized Varda had stopped.  What was this bird doing now, playing with rocks?  And to think just moments earlier it was this same altaria who'd said "I'm not a baby."  Right.... well, now he had to wait for the "not baby" to finish playing with the rocks.

Nevi followed along mostly silently, up until the point at which the altaria stopped and suddenly became overly intrigued with some rocks.  She couldn't help but giggle at how silly a sight it was, but she didn't dare speak up, not wanting to hurt her new friend's feelings.  The glaceon, however.... he was still mouthing off about her, and she had no problems with hurting his feelings a little bit.  "Bite me," she replied in a non-literal manner, more of as an insult, as she floated by the glaceon.
She stayed just out of reach so as to taunt him.

"Don't tempt me, I have teeth," Sova responded as the froslass flew by him, swatting one of his paws at her in the process.
Despite how annoyed the behavior of the creature was making him, he seemed fairly calm and uncaring on the outside at the current moment.  Now that he'd calmed down enough to think straight, he could actively restrain himself.... though he doubted that he would be able to do that forever.

(I think Akuroma has Varda beat at being a lover of sticks.)

Varda pushed some of the rocks aside, not really feeling for the sharp ones with jagged edges and unpleasant textures. His beak scratched the surface in a way that didn't feel good, so he didn't like them. But the pile had enough to choose from, the bird carefully picking up the ones on the top to move them to the side so he could access the ones below. A few more rocks were nudged aside with his head before the Altaria's smile grew wider, his eyes noticing something amazing. Two rocks, looking pleasantly round, not at all like the odd pieces that had been on top... Yes, he liked these! He liked them a lot.

"No biting!" He chimed in when he heard some banter from behind him, but most of the bird's attention was still on the stones. He couldn't leave these behind – and he really wanted to share his find with his friend, so Varda picked up the rocks from the pile and placed them on the floor, rolling them over with his head.
"Look what I found!" The Altaria chirped proudly, his head high and chest fluffed as he showed his amazing discovery.


((I'm not sure if he counts unless he EMBRACES it.))

Nevi just glared at the glaceon as a response, though it wasn't an angry glare so much as a taunting glare, so as to say "try it" without actually saying anything.  She didn't want to upset her new friend by arguing, after all, but she still wanted to make it evident that she wasn't afraid.  When Varda started speaking of rocks, though, she jumped back into her perky, friendly state to show interest in the find.  "Pretty.  Are you a rock collector?," she questioned, as it seemed odd for someone to be so particularly interested in rocks unless they were a collector of some sort.

After waiting for a moment to see if the froslass would respond and confirming she didn't plan to, Sova set his attention back on the task at hand.... or at least he had been planning to when Varda decided to speak up.  Apparently, the bird truly thought ordering him around was going to help.  If he was going to bite the froslass, he would have already done it, regardless of what Varda said.... but he decided not to say anything about this.  Instead, he at least pretended to take interest in what his friend had found.  Rocks.  Varda had been fascinated by rocks.  He couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head slightly in disbelief at this revelation, his mood being uplifted a bit by the situation.

Of course the froslass seemed interested, as it was apparently growing rather attached to Varda.  However, he personally wasn't particularly interested in rocks.  "Come on, Simple," he said as he began moving again, teasing the altaria's being so easily pleased that rocks had made him happy.  In hindsight, though, it seemed likely the bird would be completely oblivious to the teasing, just taking Simple as a new friendly nickname or something.

(He IS the sticks.)

Varda was just smiling happily when he stopped rolling the rocks, lifting his head up as he let the others admire his find. What a treasure! Nevi seemed to agree that the rocks were really nice, even asking if the bird was a rock collector! His little beady eyes lit up, sparkling in the dreary mansion hall. He had never even thought about that. Other Pokémon probably did that too, taking the beautiful, shiny stones... But to the Altaria, just these normal rocks were enough – as long as they were nice.

"Oh, oh... Well, I don't know! Maybe I should become one," he chirped, happy to hear such a suggestion. He was really going to think about it! But if he wasn't a rock collector now, apparently the bird just liked gathering rocks for no reason. He liked sticks too, but those were good nest-building material. Rocks... Were less so, harder and uncomfortable to sleep on, but they were nicer to look at?

The Altaria glanced towards Sova, who had referred to him as Simple. Varda blinked, spreading his wings a little as he needed to make something sure.
"Oh, no! That's what they call that Pokémon back at the Guild! Um... Bidoof?" He corrected the Glaceon, as it just wasn't proper to call him by someone else's name. Imagine what kind of chaos it could cause at the Guild when no one knew who was being talked about! But as Sova had wanted to go, the bird Pokémon quickly put his pretty stones in his bag, hopping after his friend.


((Wow, maybe Varda should meet him. For completely benign reasons.))

Bidoof? Sova gave a confused glance to his friend before continuing moving, showing that he didn't know any bidoof. He didn't really pay any mind to members of the Guild other than the ones he knew personally and the ones he felt could compete with him. Really, he didn't know many Guild members at all, often completely avoiding the Guild unless he was picking out missions. He didn't care to get to know them, most of them had annoying personalities and just being in that area made him think about things he.... disliked having in his head, to say the least. The last time he'd gotten stuck socializing in the Guild, he'd almost ended up in a fight. Luckily, he'd been levelheaded enough to resist the urge to take up such an offer.

"Yeah, yeah, Sim-," he began, only to be cut off by the sounds of eerie humming ringing out both from in front of and behind the group.
It was so perfectly synced that at first, he thought it was just one humming voice.... but then he realized.... there were two distinct voices in the melody. One ringing out from the path ahead, and one.... from behind. The odd part about this, though, was that they sounded more than close enough to be visible, yet he couldn't see anything. The temperature in the room began to drop as he prepared for hostility, his fur beginning to freeze into needles and gloss over with ice in the process.

Nevi giggled at her new friend's response about becoming a rock collector, liking the idea, but also finding the fact that the altaria didn't know to be a bit funny. She followed along as soon as the one she actually cared about following got moving, only to stop and listen as an eerie hum started up around them. Given she was a resident of the chateau, by now she recognized the singing of gourgeist. More importantly, though, she knew their singing was cursed! "C-cover your ears, don't listen!," she frantically spoke up before covering her own ears to avoid the looming risk of being cursed.
She didn't really know what the curse of a gourgeist did.... or if it was even a real phenomenon, but she didn't want to find out!

Sova merely listened idly to the humming, even after he was told to cover his ears. If it was something trying to lull him to sleep, it wasn't working, that was for sure. Then again, he was used to things trying to incapacitate him, they just didn't know he wasn't the type to allow himself to be easily crippled. Still, though, this clearly wasn't meant to put anyone to sleep, so what was the threat in it? Maybe it was just a scare tactic, in which case, he wanted to make it more than evident that it wasn't working.

(He's a highly aggressive and inconsiderate outlaw. Have fun with that.)

A strange humming sound forced both Varda and Sova to stop, the bird's neck rising higher as he became more alert. It wasn't bad singing, though it had a rather odd quality to it, almost seeming like... It came from multiple places at once? The bird blinked, looking around. He saw nothing, though he could have sworn that the singing was coming from a close source, one they should have been able to see. Yet, nothing. Not in front of them, not behind them. It was odd. Was it coming from behind a wall, then? Why wasn't the sound muffled...

Suddenly, Nevi called out, warning the other two Pokémon about listening to the song. The Altaria blinked in confusion, not knowing why... But seeing how frightened the Pokémon was and how she was covering her ears, the bird did the same, fully trusting that Nevi knew what she was talking about. Those large, fluffy wings rose up to press against the ears on the sides of his head, making for rather effective self-made sound blockers. The world grew much quieter, almost completely quiet even... But not quite. Varda was still going to have a lot of trouble actually hearing what others were saying, however.

"Um, hello!" He called out, his eyes still trying to search for the source of the voice,
"Who is this? Where are you?"


((Needs and extra dose of LOVE and PEACE. In the form of a laser.))

Sova continued ignoring the advice to cover his ears, as he was busy USING his ears to try and pinpoint the locations of the sounds. Having big glaceon ears certainly came with benefits, the most noteworthy of which being enhanced hearing. Varda's words seemed to be completely disregarded by whoever was making the noises, as they didn't change their course of action at all. The glaceon took to turning his head constantly to pick up sounds from different angles, taking a moment before stopping and giving a confident smirk. Two. There were two of them.... and he'd located both. They were floating around the group in circles, from the sounds of it, which made it seem like more.... but he'd managed to pick up on the movements and trace them in one big circle. "I've got you both pinned down. Come out now, or I'm taking the liberty of assuming you're hostile," he spoke up more than loud enough for the two creatures to hear.

Nevi kept her hands on her head to try and block out the noise, relieved to see her new friend did the same, but surprised to see Sova completely ignoring her. Yes, it was true that they weren't getting along, but that didn't mean she wanted him to fall to a gourgeist curse! What was more, the glaceon proceeded to say something, though she had trouble hearing what considering she was blocking out the majority of all incoming noise at the moment. "C-cover your ears, I said!," she reiterated, again receiving no response, not even in the form of the fox doing what she was telling him to.
But then, to her surprise, he.... hit one of the gourgeist out of its stealth. The froslass' jaw dropped in surprise at her new ally somehow managing to hit something he couldn't see.

Sova waited for a moment for a response, but there came none. However, he was certain the things were still around, as the eerie tune persisted. He'd warned them.... so if they were just harmless pranksters, they were about to learn a very painful lesson. He took a moment to lock onto one of the invisible creatures with his satellite-ears, specifically the one he'd found seemed to be moving slower. He then took in a deep breath and blew out a visible icy mist which traveled far too fast for the slow creature to avoid. The lower pitched of the two hums suddenly stopped as a gourgeist - one that was significantly larger than average - was knocked out of its invisible state and to the ground. However, what happened next.... well, it both excited and scared the glaceon at the same time. It.... it got back up, as if his attack had barely even fazed it! He had a type-advantage, though, and.... how could something be strong enough to shrug off a hit from HIM like that!?

As the glaceon stared in disbelief at the gourgeist, he failed to realize that the other humming voice had fallen silent fast enough.... before another gourgeist - this one significantly smaller than average - became visible right above him. Of course, he noticed the shadow cast over him, but sadly too late. As he turned his head to look upon it, a pink, hair-like arm with a ghostly-purple glow slammed into his left cheek, managing to break through his icy armor in the process. He was even thrown to the ground by the force of the blow, having grown so accustomed to fighting things weaker than him that something able to knock him down had caught him off guard.

That wasn't all the two pumpkin-like creatures had in store, though. The smaller one disappeared from view just as quickly as it'd revealed itself in preparation to attack anyone who tried to intervene with Phantom Force. At the same time, the the much larger gourgeist became enveloped in fire and charged for the glaceon who was currently off his paws, seemingly getting faster as it ran.

(The Love and Peace Laser™. By the way, I've already got movesets planned for the spooky pumpkins.)